Manufacturing processes for assembly of optoelectronic devices most often includes operations which require soldering (by way of wave, reflow, or manual techniques). In some cases these operations involve flux and/or aggressive post-solder rinsing at elevated temperatures (e.g., greater than 100 degrees F.). Particulates and wash residues can get trapped within “barrels” that lead to lenses and/or the active emitting and transmitting devices of an optical subassembly. For example, see the barrels 112 of FIG. 1. Depending on the degree of contamination, a secondary operation to post-clean the lenses is used; however, this additional process is time consuming, costly and not always effective. The result of contamination on lenses result in a photons within the modulated light signal becoming deflected off desired optical path. This problem is detrimental on transmit and receive lenses. The module performance impact as a result of lens contamination manifests itself in signal integrity issues including but not limited to jitter and signal latency processing due to modal distortion.
As is typical, most manufacturing processes are accompanied by test process. Optical module test costs can be as high as 20% for multi-mode communication modules and as high as 50% for single-mode modules. Very expensive test systems are employed with fixturing that allows a module to be exercised against it's performance specification and beyond (usually 15%–20%) test margin for critical parameters. Depending on data rate, systems can cost upwards to $1M for a gigabit tester and as high as $5M for a parallel 3 Gbps tester. The test system approach is to duplicate module transmit and receive stimulus and then measure the response. Both stimulus and response sensors must behave optically. Specifically, there must be a light source for the target wavelength and a corresponding light detector. In order to test a single module, the test system should have this capability along with all the required power sources, switches, and bit error rate test modules. In many cases it is desirable to test a full loop using two modules. This is more for characterization of an optical link in addition to interoperability with competitor modules. In either case, there is manual intervention by operators to insert and remove modules. This setup is a non-value added delay and introduces additional risk of module handling including but not limited to potential electro-static discharge (ESD) induced failures.
In view of the foregoing, an apparatus for limiting the amount of contamination to optical components and for facilitating the testing process of an optical device would be desirable.